Aaron Esterson (23 September 1923 –15 April 1999) was a British psychiatrist, practising in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. He was one of the founders of the

Philadelphia Association The Philadelphia Association is a UK charity concerned with the understanding and relief of mental suffering. It was founded in 1965 by the radical psychiatrist and psychoanalyst R. D. Laing along with fellow psychiatrists David Cooper, Joseph B ...

along with

R. D. Laing Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illnessin particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment o ...

. Born in Glasgow in 1923, Esterson served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

as a wireless operator on a minesweeper during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After the war, he earned an M.D. from Glasgow University in 1951. He first was a general practitioner, then became a psychiatrist in 1954, after which he practiced in British mental hospitals and psychiatric units. In 1962, he established a private practice as an existential psychoanalyst and family therapist.

Bibliography

* Laing, R.D. & Esterson, A. (1958) Collusive Function of Pairing in Analytic Groups, British Journal of Medical Psychology * Laing, R.D. & Esterson, A. (1964) Sanity, Madness, and the Family: Families of Schizophrenics. Penguin Books. * Esterson, A., Cooper D. and Laing, R.D. (1965) Results of family-oriented therapy with hospitalised schizophrenics, British Medical Journal * Leaves of Spring: Study in the Dialectics of Madness (Stud. in Existentialism S) (1970) Tavistock Publications * The Leaves of Spring: Study in the Dialectics of Madness (Pelican S.) (1972) Penguin Books Ltd

References

External links

Article on Sanity, Madness, and the Family
1923 births 1999 deaths British psychiatrists Anti-psychiatry 20th-century British medical doctors {{UK-psychiatrist-stub Medical doctors from Glasgow Alumni of the University of Glasgow Medical School